The darker your humour, the smarter you are?
Posted on: Monday, February 20, 2017 Category: Blog (58)< 1 min read
By Rhys Blyth
Recent research has linked higher intelligence with those who enjoy dark humour, in a small study investigating the complex information-processing that’s involved in interpreting sick jokes.
The team, from the Medical University of Vienna in Austria, recruited 156 male and female volunteers with an average age of 33, and asked them to rate their comprehension and enjoyment of 12 dark humour cartoons by German cartoonist Uli Stein. The topics ranged from death, disease and deformity, to disability and warfare.
Participants were asked to rate various qualities of the cartoons, such as; how vulgar they found them, how fitting the punchline was, how much they enjoyed the joke, and if they found it fresh or novel.
The participants were also tested for various qualities themselves, including verbal and non-verbal IQ, mood disturbance, aggression, and educational background.
The team found that there was no difference between the male and female subjects regarding dark humour appreciation, and age didn’t matter either.
The study found that participants who were most in tune with dark humour had lower scores for aggression and bad mood.
The team concludes that “These findings support the notion that humour processing depends on cognitive as well as emotional aspects, and suggest that this also accounts for black humour processing, which seems to be a complex information-processing task.”
So challenging your mind with things that are so wrong, they make you laugh can strengthen your processing capabilities. Dark humour can be something unique to your brand and key to who you are. Just remember – not everyone gets it, but then, when you have a strong personal brand, not everyone will get you. And that is good. Because you stand for something.
Interested in finding out more? Click here or read article on ScienceAlert.com
